Missa solemnis

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The Latin term Missa solemnis or Missa sollemnis means “solemn mass ”.

In the liturgy , since Pope Gregory the Great , missa sollemnis denoted the high mass ; in the Middle Ages it was the pontifical office and since 10/11. In the 19th century the office of the Levites was meant by priest, deacon and subdeacon.

In music, the term is used for a particularly festive and extensive setting with appropriate scoring of the ordinarium of the Holy Mass, i.e. the fixed parts of the liturgy : Kyrie , Gloria , Credo , Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei , which are usually continued in Individual sentences are divided. Fairs of this type appeared in Italy in the mid-17th century and spread north of the Alps from the 18th century onwards. Italian composers also used the term Missa concertata , while the form in Germany is also called the cantata mass , a downright misleading term because there is no reference to the form of the cantata .

A large mass , both in scope and in its symphonic composition, often goes beyond the possibilities of a performance in a liturgical setting, so that concert performances are frequent.

The Missa solemnis stands opposite the Missa brevis , in which the entire ordinarium text is set to music in a musically simpler form. A mixed form is the Missa brevis et solemnis , which combines the musically shorter form with a "solemnen", festive orchestra with trumpets and timpani - and more rarely oboes and horns.

The prototypical model of a fully developed Missa solemnis of the 18th century includes the following features:

  • The Kyrie is in three movements, the Christe eleison using solo parts, and the Kyrie II is often designed as a fugue .
  • The Gloria can be divided into up to eleven individual movements, typically with the Laudamus te as a soprano aria and the Quoniam as a bass aria and the Cum Sancto Spiritu as a fugue
  • The intonations of the priest in Gloria and Credo are also set to music
  • The creed has three or more sentences
  • The mostly chorus-based Sanctus begins slowly, moves into a faster tempo in Pleni sunt coeli , followed by a hosanna as a fugue. The Benedictus, on the other hand, is usually composed as a soloist, the Hosanna II again as a chorus
  • The Agnus Dei is in two parts with a slow opening part and Dona nobis pacem as a fugue

Masses from the 18th century that more or less correspond to this type are among others. a .:

From the 19th century onwards, the term was mostly used for symphonic works with correspondingly large dimensions. The best-known work of the genre is probably the Missa solemnis by Ludwig van Beethoven . The Petite Messe solennelle (French "small solemn mass") by Gioachino Rossini is based in some elements on the model of Beethoven's Missa solemnis . Other examples are the fair solennelle en l'honneur de Sainte-Cécile by Charles Gounod and the fair solennelle by Hector Berlioz .

literature

  • Peter Ackermann: Mass - V. Multi-part mass settings 17th to 20th century. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . New edition. Part volume 6. Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel / Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-7618-1107-1 , Sp. 204-219.
  • Joseph Dyer:  Roman Catholic church music. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  • Wolfgang Hochstein: The fair. In: Wolfgang Hochstein, Christoph Krummacher (Hrsg.): History of church music. Volume 2: The 17th and 18th centuries (= Encyclopedia of Church Music Volume I / 2). Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2012, ISBN 978-3-89007-752-9 , pp. 216-232.
  • Horst Leuchtmann, Siegfried Mauser: Mass and Motet. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 1998, ISBN 3-89007-132-5 , pp. 233-248.
  • Hans Musch : Development and development of the Christian cult music of the West. In: ders. (Ed.): Music in worship. Volume 1: Historical basics, liturgy, liturgical chant. 5th edition. ConBrio, Regensburg 1994, ISBN 3-930079-21-6 , pp. 9-97.
  • Hubert Unverricht: Church music with orchestra from the Neapolitans to Schubert. In: Karl Gustav Fellerer (ed.): History of Catholic Church Music. Volume 2. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1976, ISBN 3-7618-0225-0 , pp. 157-172.

Web links

Wiktionary: Missa solemnis  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Josef Andreas Jungmann : Missarum Sollemnia. A genetic explanation of the Roman mass. Volume I, 5th edition, Herder, Wien-Freiburg-Basel 1962, p. 232 note 40 .; P. 265f.